1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a communication system, settlement management apparatus and method, and a program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a communication system, settlement management apparatus and method, and a program, which enable addition of a function of using credit settlement services to a portable information terminal more safely and easily.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, along with dissemination of commercial transaction conducted over the Internet, there have been realized or proposed various kinds of systems for settlement of purchased merchandizes.
For example, a settlement system using a credit card embedded with an IC chip has already been realized and is becoming widespread.
In this case, just placing a user's credit card on a reader/writer connected to a personal computer enables the user to encrypt information, which represents a credit card number, an expiration date and so on and is stored in a memory of the IC chip built in the card, and to transmit the encrypted information to a server that manages the settlement.
This can prevent leakage of a credit card number, which has been a problem in a case of simply and directly entering the card number in a browser.
Further, it has been proposed that a mobile phone of a customer having purchased a merchandize is used for settlement in a commercial transaction conducted over the Internet (see Japanese Patent Application Publication Laid-Open No. 2002-56338 (hereunder referred to as Patent Document 1)).
In a settlement system described in the Patent Document 1, information concerning a bank account of the customer is obtained from the phone number of the mobile phone used for requesting settlement. Then, charging thereto is performed. Thus, the settlement can be made without transmission/receipt of private information concerning the card number and so forth.